Culture Warriors – Best Advice From The Front Lines – Week of 4/19/13

Culture Warriors is an ongoing weekly post where I’ll be highlighting the best advice, tips, tricks, etc from the hundreds of articles I review each week. These will all be based on leadership, team engagement, culture, training, motivation, etc.

I’ve selected the top five articles from these categories in order to help filter and learn from the best of the best!

Best quote from last week:

Leaders gloss over great, looking for greater. They could have said… wow!” by @LetsGrowLeaders

As usual, John G. Miller makes you dig deep and ask questions that lead to personal accountability. This simple little story puts a spin on our most infamous failure. If only, we looked inward first, before blaming others? Here are some of the attributes we should all aspire to:

Finally, there’s proof that being happy with what you have is healthy. You don’t have to keep chasing more, and more, and more… To quote an infamous serial materialist, “Mo money, mo problems.” -P-Diddy

Leaders struggle to understand what it is that people really want. What drives them? Money isn’t everything. This is one of the best articles I’ve seen that clearly explains the very complicated subject of finding employee satisfaction…”meaningful work”:

Get serious about impact. (Find your impact in the world – “you can’t fake purpose”)

Tell that story, and tell it well. (Spread the good word; make sure everyone knows from your customers to your team)

Make talent your #1 priority, period. (Your people are your future, so invest in getting & keeping the right ones)

Design your roles for their future, not just yours. (Don’t be selfish. By focusing on their future, they will feel more loyal to yours)

Bosses can be crusty. They can get into their own little world of revenue, profit & loss, efficiency, etc. This article shares a profile of a company with a CEO that is bound and determined not to let that happen. He has thrown out the idea of having a corner office or even his own desk in order to insure he stays connected with his team and their struggles. Here are some of their cultural traits:

Employees all work in pairs – “employees effectively mentor each other”

40 hour work weeks with no weekend or evenings – reduces employee burnout.